Harbor freight offroad trailer, build log move, new tow vehicle.

[wagex]

the new wheels coming from summit racing should be here tuesday for the trailer. https://www.summitracing.com/parts/vsw-85h6865ns0 as close as i could find to the atlantic british wheels that are on the land rover. it will get a set of 265/75r16's same size as land rover has.

not quite related to the trailer, but i got the ultragauge installed in the land rover.
the DTE and MPG are not accurate in the pictures lol i drove it like 20 ft prior to taking images.
it compensates for the oversize tires which i adjusted for in the settings so now i have an accurate speed readout, reads out troublecodes which let me know about my failed o2 sensor. got those replaced yesterday, everything is dandy now. hopefully should see a good increase in mpg. i hope so because i was averaging barely over 11mpg

 

[TwinStick]

Wow, thats almost as bad as my PW's mpg's of 8-10. LOL

 

[wagex]

Wow, thats almost as bad as my PW's mpg's of 8-10. LOL

yeah so far the Ug is showing between 15-15.5mpg avg so heres to hoping! also i have a couple updates i wanted to get posted today.

got some fender support brackets put on since the wheels and tires are off of the trailer at the moment, have had the brackets sitting around for a while just havent had the want to, to get them put on. got the wheels and tires sold sunday and my new wheels are on their way to me now out for delivery.
il post pix with the new wheels when i get them on.

 

[wagex]

got tires on, looks great, might have to a little adjusting on the fenders kinda wish i had went with a 5.0 backspacing instead of 4.5" but oh well a little wider stance wont hurt. good nuff to go soft road camping this weekend with the family.

 

[wagex]

welp got back from my weekend trip yesterday. went pretty well, friday night we had some extreme thunderstorms, blew tents over everything got wet besdies what was in my one stormcase and that tan ammo can or in the rover still. needless to say took everything from the back of the land rover threw it on the front seats folded down the back seats and we slept in the back of there. saturday morning we got everything dried back out, got our tent put back up and the rest of the weekend was beautiful weather, lots of fun with the family.

friday morning before we left i took the trailer up to the co-op and weighed it, the axle was 1100lbs and total it was 1300lbs so about 200lbs on the tongue. which the springs iirc are rated for 1100 so it was right on the edge im guessing they were holding 1000lbs once you take away the wheel / tire / axle weight. i had some sway issues seemed when i would hit a bridge gap it would start bouncing back and fourth, not sure if some shocks would help or what, the only thing that seemed to help was i dropped the tires to 20psi and it rode a whole lot better but it still got into a wobble. my best guess is that the kayaks are catching air or something, maybe i need to flip them over with the holes facing in maybe they are pulling all the tongue weight off by catching air in the opening. il have to haul it around with them not on it and see if it still does it.

the LR did pretty good hauling the trailer averaged 12.8mpg the ultragage said 13.1 so pretty darn close. i did have some stuff on the roof rack which im sure didnt help.

i feel the storm messing everything up kept me from taking more pictures i literally took like two normally i take dozens.
this was before i had setup the kitchen which was under the tarp.. for about an hour before the 80+mph wind destroyed the tarp and soaked everything, the wind was coming from the east which ripped up all the guy lines on the screen in porch area of the tent and layed it over ontop of itself.

 

[rover rob]

15 mpg is about as good as it gets with a disco ( I own 2 d1's and a parts rig ) its basically a 5000 lb brick.

 

[wagex]

15 mpg is about as good as it gets with a disco ( I own 2 d1's and a parts rig ) its basically a 5000 lb brick.

im quite happy with it, coming from 13 tops with my jeep wrangler on a good day with a 40mph tail wind, plus LOTS more storage space. 25 gallon tank helps too vs 16.

 

[wagex]

welp this spring is going to be another trip down to texas to go camping with my brother, im going to be starting back on the trailer in the following weeks, a list of adjustments i would like to make. most of them are going to be trying to fight the sway im getting i think the rover has more of a backdraft that isnt helping. as far as the trailer itself i have no issues with how its configured and have no need to add anymore gadgets, its more than sufficient as is.
i did get a little sway when i towed it with the jeep i think i had to slow down like twice the entire 1k mile round trip to let it chill out.

i have made a couple adjustments for the rover, new wheels and tires which widened its stance a little bit (on accident) the raised neck on the tongue(should be non issue), and the rover itself.

-move water tank underneath trailer to lower center of gravity. might move my shore power battery down there too if space allows.
-try flipping kayaks so the openings arent catching the backdraft of the rover. thinking at speed they might be catching enough air to take off the tongue weight making it unstable.
-helper springs or heavier springs and / or shocks
-do some tweaking on fenders, the new tires stick out a bit more because the wheels have slightly too little backspacing and stick out about half an inch. which causes rubbing on the lips of the fenders to where the tread meets the sidewall a bit when suspension bounces hard. might just bend lip out 1/4".
-check bearings and re pack if needed.


after this i need to get it ready to make the trip from Silverton, CO to MOAB through the alpine loop and rimrocker trail which will be in the next 12 months

 

[wagex]

well, i ended up figuring out the sway issue simple fix just need to have water in the tank if the kayaks are on. so leaving tank where it is not really gonna change anything big except maybe adjust the fenders.

going to redo the 12v system in the trailer, rewire everything put in some fuses but other than that its staying how it is. thinking about a like 20w solar panel to keep the small battery in there charged, it just powers my shower and led lights for camp and an occasional cell phone.

 

[wagex]

not quite an update for trailer but i put a reverse light on the roof rack lastnight so i can actually see when backing it up. seems decent guess we will see how long it lasts. usually with this style of light i take them apart and go to town with silicone to seal them up but the reviews were good on this one so i didnt bother with it.

sorry for potato quality pix the lens cover on my phone is gone and its getting bad.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00T8UY1JY/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[wagex]

small quick update grabbed a marine dual purpose battery (starting and deep cycle) for $25 think its group 31 size for the trailer, too much other stuff im working on at the moment including remodeling my kitchen. but il have another decent update on the wiring changes soon

also i did get the light wired up so it can come on with the reverse lights OR come on by itself with a toggle i installed in the head liner with the rest of my switches, il post pix of all that later i do have a decent camera again so more coming soon.

 

[wagex]

made a ghetto switch panel lol for $2 cant go wrong.

my $25 deep cycle find, its a marine dual purpose, probably not the best but it holds a charge and gets the job done.
got started on the wiring still have some tidying up to do though.




my wiring station getting some stuff done


couldnt find anywhere to keep these without them getting burried somewhere for easy access. not quite a trailer thing but oh well lol.

 

[wagex]

lastnight i decided to tackle the sway issue ive been having, i weighed the trailer loaded down for a family trip (way more junk) and it was about 1300lbs so it needs to have right around 200lbs tongue weight. so, yeah compacting the weight issue my 52q ice chest (60+lbs full) was 2/3 behind the axle, rearranged it and the battery so it is 3/4 infront of the axle.

probably going to end up rebuilding the tire carrier out of 1/8" steel should save about 20lbs hanging off the rear. i just found out yesterday the spare tire weighs 73! lol not including the carrier.

having the tires balanced today. figured such big tires on such a tiny trailer would be a good move to actually have them balanced.

edit: tires are balanced, everything seems good to go, going to fill water tank and fill ice chest 1/2 with water do some weighing then a test drive.

 

[wagex]

well i figured out the "shimmy" that i thought was trailer sway..... hub is bent or the bearings are, i noticed the seal leaked on that hub since the day i bought it. never thought twice about it besides some guy did a bad job at puting in a wheel seal lol explains the shimmy though. i was really looking at trailer when driving lastnight trying to watch for sway since i dont have anything on top i cant see the top anymore. was watching the wheel, wobble wobble. fack bent wheel.. get home swap spare out, faack bent hub. cheap and easy enough fix and explains why no matter how much weight i put on the tongue it would shimmy all to hell, at random.


edit: turns out both sides are doing it... because the hubs are so small on the trailer they are actually riding on the punched out center instead of the outer ring... ordered some wheel spacers should fix that issue.

 

[wagex]

now that the wheel issue is all sorted out i got her mostly loaded down and ready for the next trip t minus 10 days. im going to pull the fenders off and remount them this weekend to make up for the spacers i had to use for the wheels.